Report Title:

Tax Deduction; Homeless; Rental

Description:

Provides a tax deduction to landlords that rent to the homeless.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1655

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO HOUSING.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 201G-474, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

"(b) Under the supervision of the executive director, the duties of the administrator or contracted agency shall include:

(1) Carrying out the requirements of the Hale Kokua program under this subpart;

(2) Developing and adopting the requirements, eligibility qualifications, registration, background check, initial screening procedures, and procedures for follow-up after placement to determine the ability to make rental payments and the need for social services and referrals for homeless families and individuals to qualify them as tenants under this program;

(3) Developing and adopting the requirements, qualifications, and the registration procedures for property owners who provide rental housing to qualified homeless tenants; provided that priority shall be given to those not requesting construction grants;

(4) Developing appropriate procedures to address potential liabilities of the State; and adopting the procedures to place qualified homeless tenants with property owners participating in the program. Participating property owners shall interview and make final tenant selection from lists of prospective tenants compiled by the administrator or the contracted agency;

(5) Establishing the procedures and requirements for the disbursement of building improvement grants and rental subsidies and the amounts thereof to property owners participating in the program;

(6) Working with the counties to develop and propose uniform incentives to encourage and facilitate the participation of property owners, including real property tax waivers or reductions, and exemptions in zoning or building code requirements which shall be conditioned on participation in the program and which shall lapse when program participation ends;

(7) Monitoring the financial status and progress of homeless tenants and cooperating with other agencies in establishing and coordinating job training, and other programs to help tenants to progress toward self-sufficiency;

(8) Promoting and assisting in the development of employer-employee relationships between homeless tenants and participating property owners, including but not limited to tenant caretaker, housekeeper, or groundskeeper employment situations;

(9) Working towards securing financial, in-kind, and administrative assistance from law enforcement and other state and county agencies and the private sector to implement the program;

(10) Working towards securing funding assistance from federal agencies and programs involved in housing development, job-training, or homeless assistance;

(11) Monitoring the progress of the Hale Kokua program, and collecting annual statistics showing the numbers of homeless people, homeless families, and homeless children, using appropriate measurement systems; [and]

(12) Preparing recommendations to improve and expand the program, including but not limited to incentives for participating property owners to sign up for additional terms[.]; and

(13) Developing a voucher system to allow the homeless to rent dwellings from qualifying landords under section 235-7(13)."

SECTION 2. Section 235-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) There shall be excluded from gross income, adjusted gross income, and taxable income:

(1) Income not subject to taxation by the State under the Constitution and laws of the United States;

(2) Rights, benefits, and other income exempted from taxation by section 88-91, having to do with the state retirement system, and the rights, benefits, and other income, comparable to the rights, benefits, and other income exempted by section 88-91, under any other public retirement system;

(3) Any compensation received in the form of a pension for past services;

(4) Compensation paid to a patient affected with Hansen's disease employed by the State or the United States in any hospital, settlement, or place for the treatment of Hansen's disease;

(5) Except as otherwise expressly provided, payments made by the United States or this State, under an act of Congress or a law of this State, which by express provision or administrative regulation or interpretation are exempt from both the normal and surtaxes of the United States, even though not so exempted by the Internal Revenue Code itself;

(6) Any income expressly exempted or excluded from the measure of the tax imposed by this chapter by any other law of the State, it being the intent of this chapter not to repeal or supersede any such express exemption or exclusion;

(7) Income received by each member of the reserve components of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard of the United States of America, and the Hawaii national guard as compensation for performance of duty, equivalent to pay received for forty-eight drills (equivalent of twelve weekends) and fifteen days of annual duty, at an:

(A) E-1 pay grade after eight years of service; provided that this subparagraph shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2004;

(B) E-2 pay grade after eight years of service; provided that this subparagraph shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2005;

(C) E-3 pay grade after eight years of service; provided that this subparagraph shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2006;

(D) E-4 pay grade after eight years of service; provided that this subparagraph shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2007; and

(E) E-5 pay grade after eight years of service; provided that this subparagraph shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008;

(8) Income derived from the operation of ships or aircraft if the income is exempt under the Internal Revenue Code pursuant to the provisions of an income tax treaty or agreement entered into by and between the United States and a foreign country, provided that the tax laws of the local governments of that country reciprocally exempt from the application of all of their net income taxes, the income derived from the operation of ships or aircraft that are documented or registered under the laws of the United States;

(9) The value of legal services provided by a prepaid legal service plan to a taxpayer, the taxpayer's spouse, and the taxpayer's dependents;

(10) Amounts paid, directly or indirectly, by a prepaid legal service plan to a taxpayer as payment or reimbursement for the provision of legal services to the taxpayer, the taxpayer's spouse, and the taxpayer's dependents;

(11) Contributions by an employer to a prepaid legal service plan for compensation (through insurance or otherwise) to the employer's employees for the costs of legal services incurred by the employer's employees, their spouses, and their dependents; [and]

(12) Amounts received in the form of a monthly surcharge by a utility acting on behalf of an affected utility under section 269-16.3 shall not be gross income, adjusted gross income, or taxable income for the acting utility under this chapter. Any amounts retained by the acting utility for collection or other costs shall not be included in this exemption[.]; and

(13) Rental income received by a landlord (who is subject to chapter 237) from a tenant who qualifies under section 201G-457 and rents a dwelling owned by the landlord for at least twelve consecutive months; provided partial-year claims shall be allowed. The amount of the deduction shall equal the amount of the annual rental income or the comparable fair market annual rental rate of the dwelling (as determined by rule, adopted pursuant to chapter 91), whichever is less."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval and shall apply to taxable year beginning after December 31, 2004.

INTRODUCED BY:

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